Pseudotumour cerebri in SLE

A 29 year-old woman with SLE was admitted to our department due to severe remitting headaches. Following investigation a high degree of intra cranial pressure was determined. Several years ago a similar finding was diagnosed, and the disease was brought into remission by the administration of periodical pulses of high dose intravenous immunoglobulins. Benign intracranial hypertension (BIH) is an uncommon presentation of neuropsychiatric SLE. In this patient several risk factors of BIH (obesity, steroid therapy, and SLE) assembled and elicited a severe presentation of the disorder which became more resistant to therapy. Several pathogenic pathways tie BIH with SLE as thrombotic obliteration of cerebral arteriolar and venous systems and immune complex deposition within the arachnoid villi (that are responsible for CSF absorption). As shown in this case report of BIH, clinical findings do not always parallel various imaging techniques as MRI and CT brain scans.